Beyond Crypto Trading: The Real-World Impact Of Stablecoins

Forbes

21-03-2025

HONG KONG, CHINA - 2021/07/22: Cryptocurrency electronic cash Bitcoin banner advertisement seen in ... More Hong Kong. (Photo by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Stablecoins have evolved far beyond their origins as trading tools for crypto speculators. Today, they're reshaping financial systems across emerging markets, with companies like Sling Money leading a revolution in cross-border payments. As stablecoin usage explodes to 30 million monthly active addresses (a 53% increase year-over-year according to Dune Analytics) their real-world utility is becoming impossible to ignore.
When Mike Hudack and his team removed Sling Money's waitlist in mid-September, they didn't anticipate the surge that would follow. Within weeks, user signups in Kenya reached an unexpected seven per second.
During a recent interview, Hudack explained:
This organic recommendation sparked a chain reaction. The company sponsored a conference in Nairobi, where Hudack's co-founder gave a talk and hosted a small event. The results were "crazy" by Hudack's own description, leading to thousands of new users discovering the power of stablecoins for everyday transactions.
The traditional system for moving money across African borders is notoriously inefficient. As Hudack points out, "There are a bunch of Ugandans in Kenya who need to move money between those two places and there are not great solutions and they're extraordinarily expensive."
The current process often involves sending funds through intermediary countries like the UK or US. This inefficient routing adds days to transfer times and significantly increases costs. Sling Money offers a compelling alternative. By leveraging stablecoins on public blockchains, the app enables instant, affordable transfers directly between countries, removing the need for costly intermediaries. For users accustomed to paying high fees and waiting days for cross-border transfers, the difference is extraordinary.
Kenya's enthusiastic adoption of Sling Money reveals something critical about stablecoins: they solve real problems. Unlike speculative cryptocurrencies, stablecoins maintain consistent value while offering the borderless advantages of blockchain technology.
What makes Kenya particularly interesting is that it already has a successful mobile money system in M-Pesa. Yet Kenyans still flocked to Sling Money. Why? Because while M-Pesa works well domestically, it doesn't solve international transfers. Stablecoins fill this gap.
"One of the things that I really didn't appreciate," Hudack admitted, "is that a lot of people who build products like this start from a kind of North-South remittance perspective." The reality on the ground is different. Users aren't just seeking remittances from developed nations. They're looking for efficient ways to move money between neighboring countries.
The Kenya phenomenon isn't isolated. According to a recent report, global stablecoin adoption is accelerating rapidly. Total stablecoin supply increased 63% year-over-year, from $138 billion to $225 billion, while monthly active addresses reached 30 million ( up 53% from the previous year) and monthly transfer volume more than doubled, rising from $1.9 trillion to $4.1 trillion.
These numbers reflect growing recognition of stablecoins' utility beyond crypto trading. As Hudack puts it, "We can help make that a lot easier. I think that we can give people a great user experience, which is less expensive, easier, and hopefully a bit safer than a lot of the other alternatives."
Traditional cross-border payments in suffer from three major drawbacks: they're slow, expensive, and complex. Stablecoins address all three issues simultaneously.
For example, sending money from Uganda to Kenya traditionally involves: high fees (up to 5-10% of the transfer amount), multi-day processing times and forces the user to navigate complex correspondent banking relationships. With Sling Money's stablecoin-powered solution, the same transfer becomes: nearly fee-free, is completed in seconds and almost as simple as a peer-to-peer payment within the same country.
"The marginal utility for me moving money between my New York and London accounts, it's actually still pretty high because it's faster, easier... and it's a hell of a lot faster than any other product I've ever used for doing that transfer, and it's cheaper too," Hudack explains. "But I think if you're trying to move money between Uganda and Kenya, the delta, the value that we can offer compared to the next best thing is even greater."
As Sling Money and similar applications continue to evolve, they point toward a future where geographic borders become increasingly irrelevant to financial transactions. The implications for financial inclusion are profound.
Stablecoins don't just make existing cross-border transfers more efficient they create entirely new possibilities. For the first time, individuals in countries with unstable currencies can access dollar-denominated assets without needing a US bank account. Small businesses can conduct international commerce without prohibitive banking fees. Migrant workers can send money home instantly, bypassing predatory remittance companies.
"We want to connect everyone in the world to a global instant financial system," says Hudack. With stablecoins as the foundation and companies like Sling Money building accessible interfaces, that vision is rapidly becoming reality.
The Kenya explosion wasn't just good news for one company it was a powerful demonstration that when given access to better financial tools, people enthusiastically adopt them. As stablecoin infrastructure continues to mature and applications like Sling Money expand their reach, we may be witnessing the early stages of a fundamental transformation in how money moves around the world.